Throwback draft: Rise of the Eldrazi

In the space between paper pre-releases and the online release, Wizards brings back old favorite formats for drafting to distract the masses from lag that makes online players feel like they are living two weeks in the past. This time, it is Rise of the Eldrazi, a format defined by its huge momentum swings and mana-hungry decks.

To refresh your memory, many creatures came with Eldrazi Spawn tokens (which are 0/1s that sac for a colorless mana) thrown in and there were several huge Eldrazi that forced your opponent to sacrifice permanents (annihilate) when they attack. Also in this set were levelers, totem armor, and a wall subtheme. Synergies trump raw power by a mile in this set. It is sublime.

Here we go!

  Pack 1 pick 1:

Cards that rate here include the green and black invokers, the rare ramper/big, cheap guy, the elephant aura and the blue leveler. I like a green ramp deck the best, so I take the rare, which is either a big boost to mana or a big, early smasher.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 2:

Pack two is much emptier, with Aura Gnarlid for the aura deck, Vent Sentinal for the wall deck, and Regress and Last Kiss as cheaper utility.

   My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 3:

It is a bit of a concern that there is no green here, but I stick to my guns and pick up another ramp creature.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 4:

Still no green and the ramp is getting thin. Essence Feed comes with spawn, but that isn't the kind of thing I want to be doing. The levelers are always welcome in my deck. I also note the Raid Bombardment. If It comes back and I have a lot of spawn tokens, it might be worth taking.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 5:

Cheap burn that deals with utility 1-toughness guys and ramps at the same time? Yes, please.

 My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 6:

This pack is desolate. The blue flier can help to ramp and other than that Spider Umbra is not too bad.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 7:

This is a late Totem-Guide. In an environment with so many auras, he is usually very good. Yes, this is my fourth color card so far.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 8:

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  Pack 1 pick 9:

The only white card taken from this pack in the first lap was Mammoth Umbra. Smite and Totem-Guide wheel from my first pack? I should identify that white is very open and move in. I don't.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 10:

Not as bad as he looks. A fine mana sink.

  My Pick:


  Pack 1 pick 11:

Hill giant is not good in this format.

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  Pack 1 pick 12:

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  Pack 1 pick 13:

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  Pack 1 pick 14:

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  Pack 1 pick 15:

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Feast your eyes upon my pile after pack one. I have helpfully sorted it into stacks of things I would play and things I wouldn't. I think my best three cards are in green and white, but I don't have the volume there. If I had done this examination at the time, things would probably have gone differently this draft.

This is fun-looking.

  Pack 2 pick 1:

So where do we go here? The best cards are blue and green, for the aura deck and the ramp deck. They are not better enough than Staggershock to move me off the red-black path I have now chosen for whatever reason.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 2:

The best invoker was here and I take a random black leveler.

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 3:

Some reward here with Vendetta. This hurts in RoE when you have to dome yourself for 8-12 to get rid of a demi-Cthulhu or whatever, but it is cheap and better than being bashed into pieces.

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  Pack 2 pick 4:

This is the moment when the switch to white should have been cemented. Cliff Claven is one of the best levelers, but my eyes are blinded by the 1/2 ticket rare-draft (since there is stone nothing in red and a mediocre flier in black).

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 5:

Another Cliff Claven missed. I take weak removal.

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  Pack 2 pick 6:

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  Pack 2 pick 7:

Finally I make a pick trying to get together a deck. Kiln Fiend can be decent if you have enough spells and boy do I have middling red and black spells.

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  Pack 2 pick 8:

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  Pack 2 pick 9:

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  Pack 2 pick 10:

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  Pack 2 pick 11:

This guy is terrible, but works decently with Kiln Fiends and 1/7 boars (of which I have none)

  My Pick:


  Pack 2 pick 12:

Two really late leveler-enablers.

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  Pack 2 pick 13:

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  Pack 2 pick 14:

This card actually enables the Kiln Fiends, so perhaps I have something brewing.

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  Pack 2 pick 15:

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  Pack 3 pick 1:

I am officially off the ramp train as I take the best black leveler over more spawn.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 2:

On the other hand, if I have enough spawn and Traitorous Instincts and Goblin Tunnelers, maybe the vampire can get there on synergy.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 3:

My choice of cheap burn for the Fiends.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 4:

There's a Fireboar. He works in the Kiln Fiend deck and I'm not sure I want a second attack step. It is only great with my shades and unblockable Kiln Fiends and fully leveled levelers. I'm very dumb sometimes.

   My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 5:

Explosive Impact is not nearly as bad as it looks, at five mana to draw a card and burn something for its mana cost. However, I have a deck full of ones and twos.

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  Pack 3 pick 6:

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  Pack 3 pick 7:

Another reward. Fully-leveled, this guy throws lightning  bolts.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 8:

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  Pack 3 pick 9:

Battle-Rattle can be fun, but my tiny guys need equipment more, I think.

  My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 10:

Second tunneler. We have a (terrible) plan.

   My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 11:

Perhaps this deck could use some top end.

My Pick:


  Pack 3 pick 12:

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  Pack 3 pick 13:

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  Pack 3 pick 14:

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  Pack 3 pick 15:

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Final deck:

I cut all the top end and decided to focus on leveling and tunneling. Note the tunnelers work while pumping the shade too. 

Game one, I win the roll, and look at an opener of double Zof Shade, Forked Bolt, and four land. This is not the start my deck wants, so I mull into a much worse three-swamp, Cadaver Imp, double five-drop hand. Do I dare go down to five? I decide no and am im-meteor-ately punished when Villain plays a 1/1 for one.

Can I have that Forked Bolt hand back? Please?

I battle to stabilize, but I need to get my fifth land to play my 1/7 blocker and chumpers but never get there, while he umbras up his student, making it unstoppable.

Game two, I get another rough mulligan decision:

This hand makes two 1/1s. Mull.

This hand makes one 1/1, but can take care of bomby rares on the other side of the table. Keep.

This game starts off well. Instead of two plains and a nutso attacker, Villian goes Island, looter, Forest, Forest.

I drop Kiln Fiend, Vendetta his looter, and start getting in for a bunch with my leveled Enforcer.

He eventually gains some life and Ousts my 13 mana worth of level 3 Enforcer. Ouch. Luckily he's tapped out and I have the win on the table:

Make the Champion unblockable, level him into a 4/2, attack and we're onto game three.

Game three, I don't mulligan, but get off to a slow start. He gains some life with his 1/1, then stonewalls me with a 2/4 flier. I have Forked Bolt and Vendetta. Do I Vendetta here?

I don't, but I end up using it later on that same creature.

Villain plays Student of Warfare, but I have the perfect response in Last Kiss when he goes to level. But he Regresses! But then he replays the unleveled Student into my Forked Bolt. Hooray for little victories!

I pin most of my hopes this game to the combo of Tunneler + Shade, but Villain has Narcolepsy to shut down my shade. A 3/3 flier puts me on a clock and Pelakka Wurm comes down late to seal the deal.

I lose. End of tournament.

The deck I created was passable, but not good and certainly (perhaps obviously) not consistent. White was open for much of the draft and would have probably made a better deck, perhaps paired with blue, perhaps black or red.